Sorry, not sorry: Cop says abusive commissioner's apology for tirade was not sincere

By Graham Rayman and Leonard Greene

|new york daily news|

Dec 21, 2018 | 6:00 AM

Administrative Judge, Fidel Del Valle erupted in uncontrollable fury with a veteran female office at the West Gate at City Hall Nov. 13, when the officer merely stopped him and asked him why he was there. (Courtesy New York Law Journal)

A cop who was the target of a top administrative judge’s abusive tirade said he gave a sorry excuse of an apology over his profanity-laced tongue lashing during a City Hall standoff.

Fidel Del Valle, the chief judge and commissioner of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, on Wednesday apologized for his behavior at a City Hall entrance Nov. 13, and announced that he is taking a leave of absence to address some family medical issues.

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But Lissette Torres-Ocasio, the cop who asked him for identification at City Hall’s west gate — setting off Del Valle’s verbal assault — said she didn’t believe his sorry was sincere.

“This apology was propelled not by remorse, but by the fact that the incident was caught on an NYPD body camera and that the story was released to the media,” Torres-Ocasio wrote in a letter obtained by the Daily News.

Making clear she wrote the letter “on my own and not...on behalf of the New York Police Department, she said “Commissioner Del Valle used sexist language to degrade me. He threatened my job. He targeted me because I am a woman. He used vulgar language and his authority to physically intimidate and humiliate me in public and amongst my co-workers.”

Torres-Ocasio, who criticized city officials for making her name public, said Del Valle’s personal issues don’t justify his behavior. She said she didn’t even receive a copy of the letter before Del Valle released it to the public — an act which her lawyer Yetta Kurland described as “just a press ploy.”

“This was not a stress related outburst,” Torres-Ocasio said. “It was a calculated assault on me.”

The cop said Del Valle is not the only one dealing with personal stress.

“My father has stage 4 prostate cancer,” Torres-Ocasio said. “I am his primary caregiver. I take him to his appointments. I pick up his medicine. I speak to his doctors. I make calls to his insurance. I deal with the medical bills. I listen to him when he is in pain. Just recently we have found out that his incurable disease spread to his bones. Yet I did not verbally assault and degrade anyone. Not on that day or any day.

“Why isn’t Commissioner Del Valle being disciplined? I can’t help thinking, if the roles were reversed, there would be no hesitation from the police department to severely discipline me. And in retrospect, if there was no video of the incident, I wonder if anyone would have believed me.”

Del Valle was caught on a police body camera dropping dozens of obscenities on Torres-Ocasio after taking offense she asked him for identification as he entered City Hall for a Puerto Rican Heritage Day event.

“Listen babe, I don’t give a f---! Do you know who I am?” the 69-year-old Del Valle howled at the officer at the start of his expletive-laden explosion in November. “Who the f--- do you think you are?”

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The city Department of Investigation has opened a probe into her complaint against Del Valle, Kurland said.